You can't get enough: how processed foods deceive the body

Chips, cereal, cakes, candy, cookies, snacks – most of us choose unhealthy but tasty foods every day, knowing the dangers of each piece. What is the secret behind the surprising popularity of junk food? Why do many people consciously choose foods that are harmful to their health?

New research has shown that this is due to production processes that "pre-digest" raw ingredients to produce ultra-processed foods. Such foods ignore the body's signals of satiety and can lead to gluttony, and thus to obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. What do you need to know about "pre-digested food" and how does it threaten your health?

What is "pre-digested" food?

"It's an illusion of food. It is extremely expensive and difficult for companies to produce real, whole food. It's much cheaper to destroy real food, turn it into molecules, and then reassemble it to produce whatever they want," says infectious disease specialist Dr. Chris van Tulleken.

Three main crops are used to produce cheap and tasty food in beautiful and convenient packages: corn, wheat, and potatoes. They are broken down into their molecular parts - starchy flours, protein isolates, fats and oils, or what manufacturers call "slurries."

Starch Europe, a member of the European Starch Industry Association, provided a video explanation of the process:

"The lion's share of the extraction is the starch slurry, a milky mixture of starch and water, but we also extracted proteins and fibers. About half of the starch slurry goes to the production of starch-based sugar and other derivatives. This process is similar to the natural human digestion process."

By adding artificial colors, flavors, and emulsifiers, the slurry is heated, mashed, shaped, or turned into any food the manufacturer can think of.

The next step is to find the right ratio of sugar, salt, and fat to please the taste buds. "It's almost impossible to resist such ultra-processed food," says Dr. Tulleken.

"It can be pizza, a hamburger bun, cereal bars, breakfast cereals, ice cream, confectionery – anything. All of these products have the same list of original ingredients.

How do ultra-processed foods mislead the digestive system?

Ultra-processed foods are easy and fast to digest. According to experts, this is similar to how mother-birds feed their chicks in the nest with food that has already been partially digested by saliva. The human digestive system works in a completely different way. All digestive organs, starting with the teeth, are designed to grind food.

The human gastrointestinal system has evolved to break down whole foods into various nutrient components, absorb vitamins, minerals, and trace elements, and then excrete the residues and fiber.

"If food doesn't pass through the digestive system the way Mother Nature intended, the body loses the ability to send a signal of satiety to the brain. Essentially, you bypass the stomach's stretch receptors. Before the stretch receptors say "enough!", you've already eaten twice as many calories," says David Katz, MD, an expert in preventive and lifestyle medicine.

What nutrients does ultra-processed food contain?

According to Julia Menichetti, a researcher and lecturer at Harvard Medical School, food that is decomposed and re-produced does not contain the nutrients our bodies need. We consume more calories, but they contain few nutrients," the expert notes.

"Disruption of the chemical and physical structure of cells in food or the food matrix can damage and even destroy many of the nutrients in food. The food matrix is completely destroyed. This is associated with a high risk of dangerous chronic diseases and early mortality," said Anthony Fardet, a senior researcher at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research.

According to Fardet's research, ultra-processed foods are less nourishing and contribute to higher blood sugar levels than minimally processed foods. Other studies have linked diets high in ultra-processed foods to an increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and depression.

What kind of food processing is beneficial?

Simply peeling potatoes, carrots, and apples, cooking tomatoes to make sauce, adding salt to marinate meat, and canning food grown in summer for use in winter are the most common ways to process food.

Due to the rigid cell walls of some plants, vitamins, minerals, and trace elements are less accessible to the human body. For example, the cell walls of asparagus are weakened as a result of steam treatment, and vitamins A, C, E, K, and folic acid of group B become more accessible for absorption.

Cooked tomatoes increase the level of the antioxidant lycopene, which improves bone health and reduces the risk of heart disease. Cooked carrots release more beta-carotene, an antioxidant that the body uses to synthesize vitamin A. However, if vegetables are cooked for too long, some nutrients are destroyed – vitamin C, for example, is extremely sensitive to heat.

Waste-free production

Ultra-processed foods use chemical ingredients that give them certain properties. They are used in food preparation, for example, to improve resistance to changes in cooking temperature or to extend shelf life.

This process produces almost zero waste of precious agricultural raw materials, and the technology is efficient and cost-effective, allowing us to produce long-lasting products that make our lives easier," the experts say.

"We are paying for this with our health," says Marion Nestle, author of books on food policy. The food industry has created an environment in which we need to eat more. Foods affect the brain's pleasure centers and hormones, so it's almost impossible for people to stop eating them," Nestle says.